- In 2016, Trump vowed that his administration would “enforce” laws regarding classified documents.
- “No one is above the law,” said Trump, who was a presidential candidate at the time.
- Trump is now the subject of a DOJ probe into whether he mishandled top-secret documents.
A video of former President Donald Trump from 2016 — when he was still on the campaign trail — has surfaced, and it hasn’t aged well.
The August 2016 clip was posted to Twitter this week by CNN journalist Andrew Kaczynski. In the video, the then-presidential candidate promises to take a hard line to protect classified information.
“On political corruption — we are going to restore honor to our government,” Trump says.
“In my administration, I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information,” he vows.
“No one will be above the law,” he adds.
—andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) August 15, 2022
Some six years after the footage was taken, Trump is now facing a Department of Justice investigation into whether he mishandled classified documents that he kept at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
While executing a search warrant on the property last Monday, the FBI removed 11 sets of classified documents — some of which were marked top secret and concerned nuclear weapons. According to the warrant, the Justice Department is looking into whether Trump broke three federal laws, including the Espionage Act.
In February, the National Archives and Records Administration removed 15 boxes of documents from the property.
For his part, Trump has denied wrongdoing and claimed without substantiation that he had declassified all the documents he kept in his Florida home. If Trump is convicted of violating the Espionage Act, he faces a 10-year prison sentence.
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